1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image processing apparatus, an image processing method, and a computer program product.
2. Description of the Related Art
There is a known printer capable of recording an image with color materials (toner) of chromatic colors such as CMYK on a recording medium such as a paper, and capable of further recording an image with a fifth color material (toner) on the surface of the recorded image. Further, there is a known image processing apparatus including a printer controller or the like compatible with the above described printer. Examples of the fifth color material (toner) include a white color material (toner).
When the white color material is employed as the fifth color material, and if the white color material is recorded on the surface of an image recorded with the chromatic color materials, the image recorded with the chromatic color materials becomes invisible by being covered with the white color material. Therefore, there is a known technology for providing an operation mode to record an image with chromatic color materials on the front side of a recording medium and record the white color material on a part of the back side of the recording medium so as to correspond to the image on the front side (see, for example, Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication No. 2007-083634). This technology is based on the assumption that the recording medium is transparent, and uses the white color material to prevent the color image formed on the front side of the recording medium from being influenced from the back side.
However, in the conventional technology, the method of using the white color material is limited, and there is no system for using the white color material in various ways.